The Flash Ending Explained: Here's How the Climax and Post-Credits Scene of Ezra Miller's Film Transform the DC Multiverse (SPOILER ALERT)

After so many years of development and delays, we all can finally say that The Flash is playing in theatres. What a road it has been filled with directors coming and going, a star who became a fugitive and uncertainty. It’s definitely been a ride, and with the film out, we can actually talk about what all it sets up and exactly what we can expect going forward. The Flash Movie Review: Ezra Miller’s DC Film is a Wild, Crowd-Pleasing Concoction of Fun, Chaos and Messy CGI (LatestLY Exclusive).

The Flash is basically a loose adaptation of the Flashpoint comic, and it sees Barry Allen travel back in time and save his mom which pretty much breaks the universe. Now not only does The Flash actually have an ending that introduces the concept of a multiverse to a DC Universe, but it also gives us an idea about what we can expect from the upcoming soft-reboot that is going to be developed by James Gunn. So, lets dive deep into the ending and see exactly what went down.

How Does The Flash Set Up the Multiverse?

At the start of The Flash, we see Barry Allen travel back in past to save his mother and here is where the Speed Force is established where we see exactly how time works. However, while traveling back to the future he is thrown out of the Speed Force by a mysterious speedster and ends back once more in the past during the events of Man of Steel with Zod set to launch his attack on Earth. Enlisting the help of a younger Bally Allen who still hasn’t received his powers, he starts rounding up the help of other heroes only to realise no metahumans exist.

Barry soon realises that Batman does exist in this world and when he meets him, it turns out to be Michael Keaton’s Batman. Old and lonely living in his manor, he explains the multiverse to Barry saying that traveling back in past doesn’t create another reality, but changing the past changes the future as well, and sometimes can cause the overlap of different universes too.

So, during the finale when Batman and Supergirl die while fighting Zod and his forces, both the Barrys travel back in past only to realise that both of them are meant to die everytime. However, everytime they are travelling back in past, the younger Barry is getting a piece of Kryptonian shrapnel stuck to him. It’s then quickly established that the younger Barry gets obsessed with wanting to save Batman and Supergirl and its revealed that he is actually the speedster who originally got Prime Barry stuck in this timeline.

Over here then it quickly gets established that there are a whole sleuth of different universes that are about to collide with each other due to the younger Barry’s constant tampering of the past. We see various different worlds that includes (distasteful) CGI recreations of previous DC superheroes like Christopher Reeve and Helen Slater’s Superman and Supergirl, George Reeves’ Superman, Teddy Sears’ Jay Garrick, and Adam West’s Batman, while Nicolas Cage finally gets to don the suit as Superman as well fighting a huge spider.

However, the younger Barry comes back from past and quickly realises what becomes of his if he constantly messes with time and stops his future self from harming Prime Barry. The younger one then convinces Barry to go back in time and let his mom die because its needed to save the universe and Prime Barry undoes everything he did while sharing a heartfelt moment with his mom. However, he is able to save his father when he keeps the tomato can on the top shelf so that the security cam could catch his face.

Returning back to the original timeline, Barry attends his father’s hearing and the CCTV footage shows his looking directly into the camera proving that he didn’t murder his wife. Going back outside, Barry then gets a call from Bruce Wayne and sees his car pull up, but instead of it being Ben Affleck, it’s George Clooney’s Bruce Wayne teasing that not everything is right and the film cuts to the credits.

In the post-credits scene, we see Barry explaining the multiverse to a drunk Arthur where he says that Batman is a constant in every universe, however he looks different everytime meaning that its not necessary that Clooney will be the Batman of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s upcoming DCU. It’s an open-ended finale that pretty much leaves it as a carte blanche for the new reboot. The Flash: Ezra Miller Makes First Public Appearance Since Legal Issues at the Red Carpet Premiere of Their DC Film (Watch Video).

Whatever it may be, here is hoping the next DC cinematic universe does have a bit of a planning to it. The Flash is playing in theatres right now.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 15, 2023 07:33 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).